Tag Archives: Wesley So

Forget Trump! Wijk aan Zee will be the center of the chess world in January. The small town on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk is always worth a visit, albeit it is often cold and windy in January.

The town looks different in the summer though! A few years ago I visited Wijk in the summer, to find out how this place looks like when people are not wearing hats, scarfs and handgloves.

Bergweide in Wijk aan Zee.

You can read tournament previews on several websites and many chess players will follow the games online in the next weeks. Many chess fans will also follow Twitter during the event, which will be played from January 13-29 2017. But who to follow during TataSteelChess 2017? Here is a comprehensive guide of the players with a Twitter account.

The organisation

First of all, you should add the official account @tatasteelchess to your watchlist. Do not forget the account of Tournament Director Jeroen van den Berg, @jvdbergchess. The official hashtag is #tatasteelchess, which is used in the tweets of the official account. Sounds good, makes sense.

TD Jeroen van den Berg

If you are looking for fine pictures and videos, add the accounts of @lennartootes and @alinalami. Seriously: is there a tournament in this world in which Lennart is not involved? He will take care of the videos in Wijk. Alina l’Ami is the official tournament photographer and she will not only put pictures on the website, but she also often shares pictures on Twitter.

Family business: Erwin and Alina l’Ami (TataSteel 2011)

Pictures and hopefully some behind-the-screens tweets can be excpected from chess commentator and reporter Anna Rudolf, who joined the media team in Wijk aan Zee this year. Follow @anna_chess to stay up-to-date. She already posted some nice stuff before the event started. Recommended!

The players on Twitter

Many players who play in WAZ have a Twitter account. @MagnusCarlsen of course, but really, it is not a very up-to-date Twitter account. Magnus or his social media team hardly tweet, and I personally do not like it that he did not tweet a “thank you” to his fans after the world championship in New York.

@SergeyKarjakin is active on Twitter, you can often find some pictures on his account. It is also recommended to add the account of his lovely wife Galiya, @galiyachess.

Another star with an account is @Wesley_So, but his latest tweet is from 11 February 2012…. @LevAronian, who calls himself ‘chess gangsta‘ in his Twitter profile is active and often shows pictures of his girlfriend Arianne Caoli. You should follow her account @caoili as well to get pictures of Levon. Dutch number one @anishgiri is often very active on Twitter, especially during world championships. We will see if he finds the time to tweet during the tournament. His wife Sopiko Guramishvili plays in the “Challengers” tournament and her account is @Sopiko20.

Anish Giri: pondering over his next move or his next tweet?

Do you know who @lachesisq is, a Dota and Hearthstone fan? You know what, find that out yourself. @harichess is easier to guess, @Eljanovis a giveaway, just like @Radek_Wojtaszek. Richard Rapport is on Twitter with the handle @rjrapport, “KingLoek” van Wely @loekvanwely is still on Twitter, but his latest tweet was published in October 2015. Abhidan Baskaran has the handle @abhidanchess. His latest tweet (12 January) :”Off to Wijk! To fulfill the new year resolution! Tata Steel Masters here I come!”

Regular guest in Wijk aan Zee: KingLoek

I didn’t find many Twitter accounts of the Challengers, but I will be happy to update this guide in case I missed somebody. I found Gawain Jones @GMGawain, Nils Grandelius @GMGrandelius, @benjamin_bok, @erwinlami, Eric Hansen @hansenchess, @aryan_tari and @Sopiko20.

If you have a player account that I missed, let me know! Send a tweet to @ChessClassic. Thanks!

The chess twittersphere either had a Post-Magnus Twitter depression or a Pre-Christmas Twitter blockade, because the number of chess related tweets reduced dramatically after the world championship match in November.

Fortunately, we had the London Chess Classic to follow. @london_chess:“It is actually the first time in 8 years that the London Chess Classic clashes with the world famous Olympia Horse Show!”

I had the privilege to travel to London for two days and I visited the Classic on Tuesday, 15 December. I had a talk with Dutch GM Erwin l’ Ami @erwinlami , who seconded his compratiot Anish Giri at the Chess Classic in London about the blog and chess tweets in general. He said that he often tweets during big events like the world championship and other big events, but that he does not feel the need to comment everything that is happening in the world of chess. Perhaps he had a talk with Anish about this subject, because after the London Chess Classic @anishgiri: tweeted “New Year’s resolution: tweet less, win more! “

For the benefit of this blog I can only say: tweet more and win more.

Anish Giri, photobombed!

@GMjtis: Giri is an absolute mystery to me. He fights hard, plays sharp positions, is so gifted. But he’s like Magneto in a universe of metal draws.

You can not say that Anish did not try to win a game in London: @Kingsheadchess tweeted: “Come on Giri, he’s only 45! Anish Giri playing on in dead draw, hoping that Mickey Adams will die of old age.”

Talking about old age: @thechessdrum: “Vishy responds to Giri’s “When will you retire” with “When are you going to win a game?” Got ’em!”

Vishy Anand: why retire?

@sergeykarjakin:“ If you ask me Giri has just become World Chess Draw Champion.”

The London Chess Classic is a wonderful chess festival, with many side ents and some of the best players of the world competing in final leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2016. But even the best players have bad days:

@jonathan_rowson; “Classic self-destruction by Aronian. The frustration of not being able to impose your will gets to even the very best players.”

What about former world champion Veselin Topalov? Oh dear, he had many bad days at the Classic. @mamdouh_ismael: “Is it time for Topalov to quit chess? What a shame to lose against So like this …

@LouLasher:” I love the way Topalov plays, right up till his games fall apart. It’s heartbreaking.”

Perhaps Toppi did not prepare very well? What is your guess, Peter Heine Nielsen@PHChess: “Italian blues; Topalov reknown for deep opening preperataion. 50K Euro question: Was this one of them?”

Toplaov had a simple answer: @GrandChessTour: Topalov: “My brain is not working”.

Talking about exciting openings: @TERrendle: “Wow, more excitement at the Classic in Naka vs MVL! Maybe instead of rapid tiebreaks at WC players are forced to play Najdorf?!”

Hikaru Nakamura: Najdorf, why not?

@joshfriedel: “I guess Caruana-Naka and Naka-MVL illustrate why everyone is playing the Berlin.”

@GMJtis: “Now wondering if the absence of Magnus allows the others let their hair down, or if this London Chess Classic is simply blessed.”

Andrew Martin agreed, @AMartinChess: “The games of the London Chess Classic 2016 are quite superb.”

Did we really miss Magnus in London? @TarjeiJS: “Around 9000 simultaneous viewers of the LondonChess live stream. Now, how much higher would that be with Carlsen playing?”

Happy Wesley

Superb winner of the Chess Classic and the Grand Chess Tour 2016 was Wesley So and he was praised by the Boss himself, @kasparov63: “Congratulations to Wesley So for winning the GrandChessTour! He showed great consistency &, bad news for opponents, he’s still improving.”

@elo_1985_mor: “A dream year for Wesley. Congratulations to him for his achievements. London Chess :best tournament of the year in terms of chess quality!”

However, chess also showed its ugly head in London at the FIDE Open: @london_chess: “The top clash in the FIDE Open, Bacrot-Gupta, was a draw in 5 moves, meaning Bacrot is guaranteed at least shared first!” @elgransenor1: “That was pathetic on board one of the FIDE open today, even by chess standards.”

On the final day, there was a lot of action in the Chess Classic Super Rapidplay, which was won by Valentian Gunina. @ginger_gm:“Amazing performance by Gunina. Well done! Girls are not as good as men!? Don’t think so!

After the world championship in New York between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin and the positive feedback I received, I decided to start “Chess in Tweets -Weekly” in which I will try to collect the best and most remarkable chess related tweets of the week. If you see a tweet that should be included in “CIT-weekly”, sent me a tweet @ChessClassic. And if there is a big event going on, I will probably compile an extra “mid-weekly”. Why not?

#Carlsen-Karjakin

Let’s kick off with …. Carlsen-Karjakin! Oh no not again! Well, the match is over but there were some tweets worth noticing. I have to say that I am surpised and slightly disappointed that the champ himself did not write a single tweet after the world championship. A simple “Thank You” tweet to the fans isn’t a big deal, right? His opponent Sergey Karjakin showed him how to write a classy tweet after the match:

@SergeyKarjakin: “Very tired after the difficult match, and tons of the interviews?. Thank you all for your incredible support! Proud to have so many fans”.

There was some remarkable news after the world championship and even insider @TarjeiJS was surprised: “This is a big surprise. Carlsen names @GMShanky among his helpers during Carlsen-Karjakin, in addition to MVL, Fressinet and Grandelius.”

@GMShanky is GM Sam Shankland, a 25 year old professional chess player from the United States. One player was nog surprised, though: Peter Heine Nielsen: @PHChess: “Why the surprise? He also helped in 2014.”

It is good that Team Carlsen got some help, because PH really is a lousy second, right Silvio? @silviodanialov: “Let’s face it @PHChess is weak second without single original idea and zero creativity. His best qualities: He is Danish and cheap”.

Eat that, PH! @PHChess:“Reading up on twitter, it seems like Danailov waited till game 9 to call for me being fired. New record. My previous best was by game 3!”

@portisdos: “Who cares Danailov nowadays. He is like a fake Chinese vase.” @dalychess: “Have to see the funny side of things. Suffice to say Mr Danailov has his own problems!”

Other grandmasters have other problems, like the Blindfold King, @Timur_ Gareyev:

@LennartOotes: “People asked me how @timur_gareyev recovers from a 19-hour Blindfold Chess #WorldRecord. Well, he just ran into a glass door. #human”.

@chessninja: “Should’ve kept the blindfold on”

You may have missed this tweet when you do not live in India: @chessbaseindia:“Responsible for World Championship 2013 J. Jayalalitha is no more. She ensured a hefty prize fund which was twice as much as New York 2016.” @MarkTWIC: “I remember Jayalalithaa Jayaram from the Anand vs Carlsen match. She’s had tumultuous time since and has now died.”

(After the world championship 2012)

Vishy Anand tweeted: @vishy64theking: “#Ripamma Articulate & brave.She will be missed for her persona & charisma.As TN mourns its great daughter lets be together in its dark hour”.

You can read more about “Amma” , as she was called, in my world chess championship blog “Mate in Chennai”.

#LondonChess

Before we go to London, there was some breaking news from Oslo: @TarjeiJS: “BREAKING: Oslo officially announcing that they want to host @MagnusCarlsen’s WC match in 2018.”

That’s great news, but there is a twist: @TarjeiJS: “Obviously still a long way to go, still searching for 6-7 million Euros in funding, but it’s a good start anyway.”

I will surely follow the story here in CIT Weekly, but since we are still in 2016, let’s see what’s going on in the last month of the year. Is there something going on in London perhaps? Oh yes, the darts world championship in Alexandra Palace will start soon! Anything else?

@cyberella:“London Chess Classic 2016 – love, love, love”.

The London Chess Classic, the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2016, from 9-18 December is one of the highlights of the chess calender. I know the organizers would love to get my handle @ChessClassic, now they have to deal with @London_Chess. Follow that account to keep up to date with the games and hot news. Do also add @grandchesstour to your observation list. The hashtag that is often used is #londonchess. And do not forget to visit the website.

@munroel:“Who needs world championship matches when we have #londonchess!”

Let’s have a look at the first two rounds with some exciting games: @elgransenor1: “Has Malcolm Pein had a word with the players? London Chess Classic seems a lot less boring than normal.”

(picture by @LennartOotes)

@chessbaseindia:“Tournament director Malcolm Pein makes sure that the London ChessClassic happen every year with great pomp and splendor!”

It’s never dull when this “no-handshake” game is scheduled: @thechrisgale: “Kramnik is playing Topalov!!! Topalov is playing Kramnik!!! Holy cow”. Another interesting game @chessbaseindia: “Hikaru Nakamura turned 29 on 9th December. But he had a forgettable birthday as he blundered big time on move 13.”

Poor Naka. Happy birthday! But who was his opponent?

@dukhe64: “So wins over Nakamura, So close to the magical 2800 and So close to being US 1.. So when does he play against Caruana!?”

In the second round , So won again: @london_chess:“Wesley So beats Adams, storms to 2/2 and becomes the 12th player in history to cross the 2800 mark! Congratulations!”

@cristianchirila: “Wesley is in beast mode. He makes it look easy, must be terrifying for his rivals”.

@grandchesstour:” Congratulations again to Wesley So!”

Good job, Wes. We will see if he can keep the pace in the next edition of “Chess in Tweets Weekly” and I will also check tweets about the other players, like Anish Giri, the only player with two draws after two rounds, What a surprise. Therefore, the last tweet goes out to @ainfranco:“Giri love draws more than the sex and the ice cream!!!”

Sunday 11.12 update: “Happy birthday to the living legend @vishy64theking!”

Your blogger will be at the London Chess Classic on Tuesday. Send a tweet to meet and greet @ChessClassic!